The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1887-09-10
THE CRIMSON SCARF.
elbow old did you say:' asked the
commander-in.chief.


"Nineteen."
uAnd the man ?"
GA little Older"
The commander in. chief puffed his
cigar at thoughtful intervals. The war
was by % years thing OF the past, but
as head o: a great commercial enter
prise a military title still clung 10 him
from out of his war experience, and he
did not dislike it, for some of his war
memories appeared to be his most cher
ished mental treasures. So he debated
with his cigar over the two young peo-
pie whose sentimental rashness had
brought them into public notice, and
rs he debated he was looking back
ward over the diverse panorama of two
decades of life, through the rifted
smoke clouds OF great rebellion at a
little drama that seemed almost q
dream, but which to him was, perhaps,
the ebest-remembered incident of all the
five years. fight. And when he told it,
half musingly, the listeners did not
wonder. The ways of fate are very
diverse, and it sometimes happens to
the least imaginative III the madding
crowd that u face which is looked into
only for moment is never forgotten
in all the length of the years that fol-
low. Perhaps it was so with the COM
Inander in chief. Perhaps not. In any
event, nobody dared TO ask.
s'In the fall of 1861" tie began, "I
was stationed with a detachment at
Paint Rock, Ala. We were drawing
on the enemy for supplies; foraging, in
fact. Our crackers and hard tack we
got from Stevenson, but for fodder for
our horses and anything to add sumpt-
uOusuess to the appearance of the fry~
ing pan we had to depend on the coun-
try. For some weeks 1 had sent out
the wagon train to the east, the south
east, and down the valley Of the Paint
Rock creek. The only direction left for
investigation was the west, where, at a
distance of q miles, was Huntsville,
then the capital of northern Alabama,
which, up to the time of the war had
been wealthy, aristocratic and fash
ionable city. Well, one pleasant morn
Ing sent the wagons across the creek
and followed them with Il guard of 90
men. 1t was reported from time to
time that the country ahead of US was
full of rebel guerrfilas, but we saw no
signs OF them, and for two months had
no trouble whatever with any foe.
"Atter crossing the creek the wagons
took road which wound along the
foot of a spur at the Blue Ridge moun-
tains, which rose green, heavily wood
Ell, anu picturesque at our backs. We
passed several small cleariDgs and plan.
tations, whose log houses were filled
with hot-blooded and hot-tempered
southern women, whose evident desire
to fay US with their tingcrnails rather
interfered with that sweet spirit of hos
pitality for which tho South is famous
AT distance of seven miles 1 halted
the detachment at a cool but sinister
looking place in the road, known to all
the country round about as sthe Gap.'
"sThe Gap was the entrance to a
pass through one OF the outlying mouu-
tain spurs. 1t was q deep hollow,
heavily wooded. Jhe dense growth of
towering pines and frs grow close to
the roadside. The woody spaces were
80 filed with underground and blocked
ny fallen trees that AS you peered into
the dark recesses of the forest on either
side hostile army might have been
sheltered there without your being able
to perceive q button. / remember the
looks OF the place because the first time
l saw 1t 1t made me rather uneasy, and
The last time but one that l saw if /
came near staying there for good, as
did, in fact, some other poor fellows
who were not so fortunate.
swell, after rest, we kept on, and
a few miles further we came on a plan
tation of 750 acres, with large and
comfortable looking residence near the
roadside. The wagons had reached
there long before u.s.: They were being
rapidly filed from Il row of we'll stored
corncribs at the back OF the house. !
had just gotten off my horse near the
door when two girls came toward me,
and If I were not telling this story,
gentlemen, I would honestly declare
that they were the two pre,tiest girls l
ever saw in my life.
s'They were both tall and slender.
with graceful and womanly figures.
They were dressed in dark blue calico.
and had no artificial aids to their fresh
young beauty. Their faces were intel
ligent and full of resolution, yet ma rked
by that shyness which belongs to girls
who are we'll born and bred in compar-
alive seclusion. The elder, Ellen, was
dark-eyed and dark-haired. Addie was
II, two years younger than her sister,
and yetow-haired and bIue-eyed
blonde. The apparition they presented
astonished us. l think all the men
took Off their hats instinciively. /
know ] did. And as my hat was q
real Mexican sombrcrc, and matched
the long Mexican spurs that jingied on
my heels, was rather fond of keeping
il on nv head